Management speak. (Courtyard cafe, Fakenham)

The Courtyard Cafe,

Fakenham,

Opening times Every day 9:00-17:00 

The weather has been so inconsistent recently that I have had several planned cafe cycle rides called off by my cycling guests. However there was no danger of this happening yesterday as it was a clear blue sky that greeted us for the ride. I also had two cycling guests booked in from the previously cancelled efforts. One was Cake Crusader veteran Andrew (who is Notoriously hard to place) and the other was Matt, an old work colleague of ours who was new to cycling and currently between roles in the world of big business.

As we left Hard to Please House (HTPH) on our trip to Fakenham it was difficult to understand much of what Matt was saying as he spoke in Management speak, a language I had become rusty in. The only thing I understood was about blue sky thinking and agreed with Matt that I thought today's sky was blue.

Moving forward we successfully overcame all the opportunities that challenged us on our journey and hit the key objective of getting to the courtyard cafe at Pensthorpe nature park with an excellent performance rating, apparently.

Outside the Courtyard cafe at Pensthorpe 

The Courtyard cafe is indeed courtyard based and sitting there on such a lovely day it not surprisingly attracted a high AAA mark.

The courtyard the cafe was named after

The cake selection was prettying good too and between us we covered the coffee, victoria and muffin cake bases. 

Lots of cake options

When our food and drinks arrived the hot chocolate and cakes performed well but the coffee had some developmental opportunities. 

Cakes and drinks about to undertake their performance review

The courtyard cafe was a nice stop and of similar standard to a number of attraction based establishments I have been too. Whilst there I also checked out their sausage roll for sausage roll of the year #SROTY. It was pretty good but the standard of my current finalists is so high it didn't make the cut.

Penthorpe courtyard cafe sausage roll offering

Our next objective was to take Matt to a top ten rated cafe as he wanted to see what world class looked like. We had chosen Heydon Tearoom as it was on route back to HTPH and would give me the opportunity to check out their sausage roll as well.

Preparing to go across the tea room in Heydon

As we sat outside on a warm Autumn day and enjoyed some of Norfolks best cakes Matt could see the attraction of a more chilled life outside the hectic world of big business of which he likes to operate in. We then spent a few minutes updating the ratings for Heydon Cafe and Shop before completing our trip. 

Self proclaimed star cakes at Heydon Tea room

Back at HTPH Matt told us how much he had enjoyed the ride although he insisted on a post ride feedback and review session so we could agree what went well, what went badly and how to improve for next time. 

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.9	5	7.1	7.2	7.4	6.72

Route

Click here to downlaod 44 mile Alysham Fakenham loop GPX file to your gps

The Celtic Trail Day 4 (Tenby to Swansea)

The Celtic Trail Day 4
Annies Cafe, St Clears,

Open Mon-Fri 9-4.30, Sat 9-3,
Recommended,
Flanagans Coastline cafe, Llanelli, 
Open Mon-Sun 10-5
Highly Recommended

It was going to be a weather lottery today as it looked like it could get rather wet. As we hopped on our bikes we were not sure just how lucky or unlucky we would be but it was time to say goodbye to the Ironman action at Tenby. 

Leaving Tenby

We set off in a light drizzle and soon were enjoying are best sea views of the week although Mrs Crusader informed me that she had to get off and push 4 times in the first 5 miles despite me promising a flatter day.

One of many early climbs

As the rain stopped we came to the big long climb I had been dreading as I knew some of the sections would be too steep for Mrs Crusader but she purposefully battled through them before we eventually made it to the top and on to an early cafe stop.

Mrs Crusader walking up the big hill of the day

We arrived in St Clears and our target cafe. There was no outdoor seating area at Annie's cafe but inside was nicely appointed. 

Outside Annie's Cafes

Once again the cake selection was small with only chocolate, carrot or Welsh fruit bread to chose from. We decided to have half each of the two cake choices. Mrs Crusader thought her Mocha was the best this week but my hot chocolate didn't compete with some of the other excellent ones I have enjoyed so far. Overall still a good showing but not the winner.

Cakes and drinks at Annie's cafe

After the coffee stop we had two more large hills to get over and these took sometime to complete. To add to the jeopardy the weather app was now predicting thunderstorms in the next two hours.

More hills as the storm clouds gather

After we summitted the last of the hills it was obvious that Mrs Crusader was pooped and her energy supplies were drained. Fortunately the remaining 30 miles left today were flat but as I was out of dilithium crystals to repower her engines I suggested we abandon tomorrow's day 5 and catch the train back to Newport instead.

Mrs Crusader was now officially pooped

This suggestion got immediate approval and seemed to give her renewed vigour knowing that this would be her final effort of the trip. The good news continued as we reached some stunning views along by the estuary but the biggest surprise was the sun had come out and all talk of heavy rain on the weather app had gone.

Fabulous views over the estuary on the way to Swansea

We then hit the millennium coast path which was several miles of good quality track with great views to accompany us until we got to our second cafe stop Flanagans Coast line cafe. I had been here before on my cycle across Great Britain but had arrived 5 minutes before closing on that occasion so it didn't get a fair crack of the whip.

Outside Flanagans Coastline Cafe

Mrs Crusader was still clearly very tired as she tried to climb the stairs before slumping into her chair with head in hands. While she was busy suffering I ordered drinks and an excellent looking piece of yogurt and berry flapjack. 

Mrs Crusader still suffering

The cake selection was good and the fabulous views of the coast line resulted in high marks for those categories. 

My hot chocolate was another fine example and the flapjack was some of the best ever. We both agreed that this was the best cafe we had found on the Celtic trail and as we won't be going to anymore I declared it the winner of my search. 

Some excellent cake and drinks

We now had just 20 miles to go to get back to the hotel and fortunately it was nearly all on good off-road track. It  took a while but eventually we hit the Swansea seafront and then cycled along it back to the Premier Inn we had left  3 days ago.

Final stretch back to hotel in Swansea

We had covered over 250 miles (most of it up) of the Celtic trail in 4 days which I had very much enjoyed but I had learned 3 things

1. Sometimes it best to quit while your ahead

2. There are a lot more hills in Wales than I had thought

3. Mrs Crusader does not like cycling up hills, which is why we live in Norfolk

Map route

Profile 

Cafe ratings for cafes reviewed on (or near) the Celtic trail

Cafe	Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Café Selection	Cake Taste Quality	Atmosphere and Ambiance	Total
Bradleys Coffee Shop	7.6	7.25	7	7.6	7	7.29
Cafe Espresso	Na	Na	Na	Na	Na	Na
Time Coffee Bar	7	7	6	6.95	6.25	6.64
Caffi Becca	3	5.25	4	7.25	6.25	5.15
Sands Cafe	8	7.65	5.25	7.5	8.2	7.32
Cwtch Cafe	8.5	7	4	8.5	7.5	7.10
Annies Cafe	6	8	5	7.75	7.5	6.85
Flanagans Cafe	7	7	7	8	8	7.4

Stats 

	Miles	Average Speed	Hours on bike	Meters climbed
Newport to Swansea	57.7	10.3	5:35:50	679
Swansea to Fishguard	69.5	10.4	6:43:15	2075
Fishguard to Tenby	61.7	10.0	6:11:02	1411
Tenby to Swansea	70.1	10.5	6:39:09	1313
Swansea to Newport	Na	Na	Na	Na
Overall	259.0	10.3	25:09:16	4573

  

The Celtic Trail Day 3 (Fishguard to Tenby)

The Celtic Trail Day 3
Sands Cafe, Newgate

Open Mon-Sun 9-4.30,
Cwtch Cafe, Pembroke dock,
Open Mon-Sat 9-5,

After yesterdays bumpy ride and the words of Mrs Crusader "what part of that route could you possibly have thought I would have enjoyed" still ringing in my ears then I hoped that the worst of the hills were behind us as we now focus on National cycle route 4 for the rest of the trip which follows the coast line back to Newport. The only problem now was that it is due to rain for the next 3 days.

Mrs Crusader was clearly very tired, at least I assumed that's why she wasn't talking to me and things didn't improve as we hit the longest and steepest climb of the day within half a mile of leaving Fishguard. By the time she was at the top she already looked wasted and we still had over 60 miles to go. To make matters worse we were into a strong headwind. However the views were good and it wasn't raining, too hard.

First hill of the day

As we approached St Davids things got a bit flatter. After feeding Mrs Crusader an energy bar while relaxing by St Davids cathedral I hoped the ride would get easier as we would now be going with the wind.

Leaving St Davids

The scenery also improved and you could often see the coast through the mist. There were still a few steep bits to contend with but not as many. 

Another steep bit coming up

After nearly 30 miles we made a steep descent down to Newgate for our first stop of the day at Sands cafe.

Outside Sands cafe

Although it was too wet to sit in the outside seating area there were still good views of the beach from our table, leading to a high AAA score.

View of beach

Sadly the cake selection was limited so we both went for coffee and Walnut with our usual drinks of hot chocolate and Mocha. The cake and Mocha were good and the hot chocolate excellent so overall a high score. We thought it was the best cafe on the route to date but as my scoring system had it in second place some retrospective adjustment was needed to our current leader which I quickly did before anyone noticed. 

Drinks and cakes at Sands cafe

Although half asleep by now Mrs Crusader insisted on studying the remaining route and profile and she didn't like what see saw as there were several more steep climbs needed to get away from the coast before things flattened off.

An unhappy Mrs Crusader after studying the rest of the route

As we left it started to rain again and the promised steep bits soon materialised, however the views were fantastic and one of us thought worth the effort.

Lovely climb away from the beach

As we approached the final steep sections we were presented with another road closed dilemma. Yesterday we had risked it only to find an impassable hole but today it paid off as the hole diggers let us pass saving a potentially big detour. It had also stopped raining so maybe things were looking up.

More road closed drama

As it turned out they were as we reached a long stretch of off road good quality cycle track which was mainly sloping down. 

Some nice quality cycle track at last (and mainly downhill to boot)

Then to make things even better we had to go over a toll bridge which happens to be one of Mrs Crusaders favourite things so she was now in a much better mood when we arrived at the Cwtch cafe.

A lovely toll bridge to cross (Free to cyclists)

It was an artisan cafe so only had two cakes on offer which was a clementine cake or a lemon and sweet potato one. We had both with our coffee and hot chocolate.

Outside Cwatch Cafe

The coffee was ok whereas my hot chocolate was top drawer and the best I had had all week. The cakes were excellent too but not quite good enough to knock Sands cafe off first place.

Final coffee and cake of the day

From here the route predominantly followed the ironman cycle route to Tenby ready for the event on Sunday. I very much enjoyed riding on it as it brought back memories of the 4 ironman races I have done, but don't like to talk about.

Ironman excitement brewing

It had been a another very long day of cycling covering 60 miles in nearly 10 hrs. However after tea I suggested a quick walk round town past all the ironman preparations. I didn't have one of my ironman tee shirts with me so I wore my cycle helmet on the walk as it still had its ironman sticker on just to subtly let people know that I'm an ironman too, even though I don't like to talk about it.

Ironman sticker just so people would know

Tomorrow we plan to cycle back to Swansea but the forecast looks dreadful with thunderstorms so a plan b maybe required.

Map route

Profile 

Weather forecast day 4

Cafe ratings for cafes reviewed on (or near) the Celtic trail

Cafe	Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Café Selection	Cake Taste Quality	Atmosphere and Ambiance	Total
Bradleys Coffee Shop	7.6	7.25	7.0	7.6	7.0	7.29
Cafe Espresso	Na	Na	Na	Na	Na	Na
Time Coffee Bar	7	7	6	6.95	6.25	6.64
Caffi Becca (on 2 visits)	3	5.25	4	7.25	6.25	5.15
Sands Cafe	8	7.65	5.25	7.5	8.2	7.32
Cwtch Cafe	8.5	7	4	8.5	7.5	7.10

Stats 

	Miles	Average Speed	Hours on bike	Meters climbed
Newport to Swansea	57.7	10.3	5:35:50	679
Swansea to Fishguard	69.5	10.4	6:43:15	2075
Fishguard to Tenby	61.7	10.0	6:11:02	1411
Tenby to Swansea
Swansea to Newport
Overall